Imphal, May 22 (IANS) Border Security Force (BSF) and Tripura Police have arrested 16 Bangladesh nationals and five Indians from different places of the state for illegally crossing the India-Bangladesh border, officials said on Thursday.

A BSF spokesman said that vigilant border guarding troops deployed in the area of Manu Border Outpost (BOP) under West Tripura district apprehended nine Bangladeshi nationals, including four women and two children, while they were trying to illegally cross over to the neighbouring country.

The apprehended Bangladesh nationals were illegally working in private organisations in Agartala for around two years.

In a separate incident, the BSF seized contrabands, including foreign cigarettes worth Rs 50 lakh from Srinagar in south Tripura district on Wednesday.

Tripura Police on Thursday detained five Bangladesh nationals, including two women, for illegally entering Indian territory by crossing the international border at the Madhupur area of Sepahijala district.

A police officer said that in the wee hours on Thursday, acting on secret input and with the help of local villagers, police apprehended five Bangladesh nationals near Madhupur village close to the India-Bangladesh border. They are now being interrogated at the police station.

He said that all five intruders are members of the same family from the Kurigram district in Bangladesh. During preliminary questioning, one of the detainees, Shahjala Khan, reportedly confessed that a person had assisted them in crossing the international border and that they were en route to Delhi.

In another incident, Tripura Police arrested two Bangladeshi and four Indian nationals from Belonia in the south Tripura district on Thursday.

The four Indian nationals, residents of West Bengal, went to Bangladesh a few months back and returned to Tripura along with two Bangladesh citizens illegally, without any valid documents. The BSF detained another Indian national after he illegally entered Tripura from Bangladesh. This man, a resident of Tripura, also went to the neighbouring country earlier without any valid passport or documents.

Tripura, which has an 856 km border with Bangladesh, is surrounded on three sides by the neighbouring country, making the northeastern state very vulnerable and sensitive to cross-border migration issues.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Wednesday once again firmly reiterated that the state government would not allow illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or Myanmar to enter Indian territory under any circumstances.

The Chief Minister earlier said that during a recent meeting with the senior security officials of different agencies, he had requested officials in the state to maintain close coordination among them to deal with the border-related issues and other related developments in view of the tension between India and Pakistan.

The Chief Minister further stated that if such infiltrators from across the border manage to enter Indian (Tripura) territory, they would be pushed back as per legal provisions.

CM Saha, who holds the Home portfolio, while talking with the media, had asserted that the BSF along the India-Bangladesh border and in the second and third tier Tripura Police and other security forces are on the highest vigil against any kind of illegal infiltration.

–IANS

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